At the dawn of the next morning, the tense atmosphere returned to the Secret Realm. The night was sleepless and loud. Fighting echoed from far away. The players and New-Gen Humans died rapidly, lessening the population by some margin.
After Isaac woke up from his slumber, he noticed Zachary standing outside the cave. Next to him was a pile of sharp sticks.
''Did you even sleep?'' Isaac asked as he frowned after seeing the number of sticks. It would take a few hours to do that much work.
''I don't sleep much.'' Zachary replied, finishing one last stick, ''I only sleep during the day, not at night.''
''Oh, why is that?'' Isaac asked while trying to keep the conversation alive. It didn't hurt to know more about his teammate. After all, Zachary was shrouded in a veil of mystery.
Shrugging his shoulders, Zachary said, ''I like the night more.''
Isaac nodded and picked up the sticks. Heading to the rest of the forest, he placed them strategically on the trees. After all of the trees were barbed properly, Isaac, with his two hands, started digging a hole.
With the incredible feat of physical strength, a two-meter deep hole appeared in the ground. Then, he placed the sharp sticks at the bottom of the hole. They had enough piercing prowess to impale through a grown man.
As the day went by, the conflicts between teams grew scarcer. They all waited for the second event and night. During the day, the fights would be worthless because no one would win a fight.
The winner of the fight would most likely get attacked by another team. After that, repeat, and another team would attack them. It would continue until every team came to a single conclusion. Fighting now was useless.
As Isaac stepped into the cave, he noticed the number on the clock doubled. For some reason, during the night, the score went up by a great margin.
Zachary soundlessly slept on the bed. Before going to sleep, he said he would sleep for an hour, which was apparently enough for him. During that time, Isaac planned to act as a guard, but the strange increase in points made him interested.
'Did he kill players?' Isaac thought while looking at Zachary. The strange thing was the lack of sound. He'd honed his senses and could hear the chirping of cicadas from hundreds of meters away. However, killing someone soundlessly was quite a feat.
...
The Internet and the public were in an uproar.
A strange post made by a former Pro Player caused controversy. There were trolls, and doubters that said the whole post was a lie, made to gain some 'Internet Fame'.
However, the reporters thought that the post made sense. All the Pro Players suddenly disappeared as if the earth had swallowed them. It could be a coincidence if that happened to only three or four, but hundreds?
After the post surfaced and caused great controversy, they decided to dig deeper into it. They contacted the person who made the post and received all details. However, when they mentioned Kalzer, etc., the person on the other side of the phone turned silent.
That caused the reporters to scratch their heads in irritation. Immediately they knew that things about seeing Kalzer and the rest were fake!
However, that didn't demoralize them. After hearing things about this Tournament of Champions, they were more confident that everyone was there!
The curiosity was killing them. All the so-called Top Players gathered under the same sky, fighting each other. The public and reporters alike wanted to see it desperately!
That was a dream of many, and seeing such a scene would be enough to mark it in the annals of history. Thus, the reporters started digging deeper into the Tournament, soon finding several more players that stepped out of the shadows.
They declared themselves as competitors in the Tournament. Of course, before that, there were many trolls that claimed to have been part of it. However, they were all no-names!
But, the ones the reporters found credible were Pro Players. They interviewed them, revealing everything they knew, and soon, their interviews were all over the Internet.
Unlike the person who made the post, one of them saw Kalzer in the flesh!
Apparently, they were killed by Kalzer's teammate while he watched on the sidelines. At first, it sounded strange. Kalzer was known never to attack Players. However, if he got attacked, he would fight at full strength and kill whoever challenged him.
But now it sounded like Kalzer actually attacked someone. That caused some disturbances among his fans. They treated him as a cool and calm God. The one who wouldn't attack others needlessly. That gave him a different kind of charm.
The person that said he'd seen Kalzer eventually fell under pressure. He revealed that he and his teammate attacked first. Thus, Kalzer and his teammate had to fight back.
That caused everyone to laugh at his face. Attacking the strongest player? Suicidal and idiotic!
To receive a Golden Ticket to this mysterious tournament would be a dream to come true, but then they threw it away like that.
After the interviews, the controversy started dying down. Everyone was now certain that the Top Players were in this Tournament of Champions.
Then, another War on the Internet happened. Everyone attacked Arthur, asking why it wasn't a public event. However, they never received a reply from Legacy Company.
The Legacy Company had been eerily quiet ever since Arthur's disappearance. Emilia had tried to keep the boat floating, but it hadn't been easy. With her beautiful face descended into sadness and fatigue, she could only wonder if Arthur was fine and where he was.
The Legacy Company otherwise had stayed out of the public's eye. However, now a fire was spreading below their feet, threatening to burn them down to the ground. They needed to make an announcement to calm down the public.
To the utmost surprise of everyone, an unannounced Announcement happened. However, not by Legacy Company.
Billions of TV screens showed the face of a handsome blond-haired man. Like a deja vu, it made everyone remember the World-Changing Announcement that happened a little bit over a year ago.
Arthur, the Chairman of Legacy Company, opened his mouth and started his second public announcement.
